Arne Slot remains unfazed by the prolonged wait for his first signing as Liverpool head coach, addressing the club’s decision to offload several young players.
22-year-old centre-back Sepp van den Berg and 19-year-old midfielder Bobby Clark became the latest to depart Anfield, following the earlier exit of 21-year-old attacking midfielder Fabio Carvalho.
Van den Berg has completed a move to Brentford in a deal worth £20m, which could rise to £25m with add-ons, while Clark has reunited with former Liverpool assistant manager Pep Lijnders at Red Bull Salzburg in a £10m transfer.
Despite raising up to £62m from player sales this summer, Liverpool have yet to strengthen their squad.
This follows the collapse of a deal for Newcastle United winger Anthony Gordon and Real Sociedad midfielder Martin Zubimendi’s reversal of his decision to join the club.
But asked if he was bothered by the failure to bring in fresh faces, Slot responded: “No, because I trust the team.
“I’ve said many times before I inherited a real good team, a team of many young players as well and I think we all know, especially young players they can develop on the ages they are at the moment.
“We just try to work as hard as we can with them and trust them a lot.
“They have proven last week they have earned this trust and I am hoping they can show the same on Sunday as well.”
One deal Liverpool is aiming to finalise involves Valencia goalkeeper Giorgi Mamardashvili, with the transfer believed to be around £35m.
However, any agreement would see the Georgia international remain in Spain and not officially join Liverpool until next season.
Slot added: “You know already the answer.
“If a deal is done you will hear from us, until that moment we don’t speak about transfers of players who are not ours.”
Explaining the sale of a number of young squad members, Arne Slot said: “That is always a difficult one as young players want to play as well, and if they want to develop then they have to play.
“It’s always like this.
“They come through the ranks of the youth Academy, and either you are good enough to play for many minutes and you’re still not there, or there is too much competition in your position.
“This team, we still have a lot of homegrown players and one of them training with us on a daily basis who is only 17 (Trey Nyoni).
“This club will always bring through good youngsters and it’s always a challenge to find the right moment either to play them or if they have played quite a lot of minutes, they want to take the next step in their careers.
“If that is not possible because Virgil van Dijk or Mo Salah is playing here or the other top players, then it’s the best for them and also the club to let them go.
“We always want to take care of your own interests but you have a responsibility to the players.
“If they want to play somewhere and it’s not possible with us and they aren’t happy with 500 or 600 minutes – as these players didn’t play a lot in the Premier League but in the cups – then you have to, in my opinion, let them develop somewhere else.”
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